


Fake Boyfriends

by Leviisthesexiestheichou



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Crime, Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Gay, Gay Love, LGBT, Love, M/M, Murder Mystery, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23153152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leviisthesexiestheichou/pseuds/Leviisthesexiestheichou
Summary: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson pretend to be dating to solve a crime.
Relationships: Holmes/Watson, John Watson/Sherlock Holmes, John/Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes/John Watston, Sherlock/John - Relationship, watson/holmes - Relationship
Kudos: 38





	Fake Boyfriends

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: There is a a gay slur used here, but it is not used by John or Sherlock!!!
> 
> I wrote this story when I was going on sixteen. Reading back, I saw so many things I'd change to make the story better and fix grammatical errors. The title was also changed from its previous name, "Fake Boyfriends...maybe," Here is the current and revised version of my story! 
> 
> Mini spoiler alert for those that haven't seen season 3 or 4 of Sherlock!

It has been three years, three solid years since that tragic event. The woman that mothered John's beautiful daughter had met tragedy three years ago. It has been three years since John has officially moved back to 221B Baker Street. No matter what he did, life seemed to point him in the direction of that inane Sherlock Holmes. Why was beyond his reasoning.

Though not an easy transition, it was the best decision John made. There were countless ups and downs, mainly with Sherlock complaining about Rosie. Rosie had to share a bedroom with John, which was fine but annoying when Sherlock constantly berated him about how she was "too noisy", "too insolent", and "too messy". Someone should've taken a photo of Sherlock's face when he saw that Rosie had made art of his favorite skull. To say it took years to make that tiny flat tolerable for each party was a complete understatement.

One evening, John was sitting in his chair while on his laptop reading comments from his blog. Rosie had been in Molly's care all day, because he had just finished solving a crime and was always cautious about any retaliations. Suddenly, Sherlock burst into the room, not making John jump as he was used to this.

“We have one!” Sherlock shouted excitedly. John looked over at his friend extremely confused.

“We have one what?” he asked curiously, hating to be out of the loop.

“Another case John, keep up!” Sherlock walked into the kitchen and began searching for things. He started to grab objects John was not familiar with. John shut his laptop and placed it aside. He watched Sherlock eagerly scour the contents of the disheveled room. They hadn’t had a case in two months, so he understood Sherlock’s excitement.

John stared at Sherlock quizzically now. “What’s this case even about?” he asked. Sherlock was too busy trying to prepare himself for the case and didn’t respond. This irritated him. “Sherlock I asked you a question,” he said with slight ire in his voice. Sherlock looked over at him.

“Oh you did? I didn’t notice,” he shrugged it off and finished preparing himself.

“Since when have you needed all this stuff?” John asked. Sherlock never brought much with him to an investigation before. What was different now?

Still refusing to answer any of John’s questions, Sherlock flailed his hands dramatically in the air and said, “Get up John, we need to move quickly!” John hurried himself up and began to follow Sherlock out of their flat. Sherlock got the attention of a taxi and piled inside with John following.

“Where are we going, Sherlock?” John had asked a fourth question now still not receiving answers. Sherlock told the taxi driver the address, one that was unfamiliar to John. He sighed, hoping it wasn’t some place too crazy. He didn’t even bring his gun.

They waited in the backseat in silence and finally arrived at their destination…a school?! John walked out. Sherlock paid and dramatically exited.

“Sherlock what the hell are we doing here?! This is a school! There aren’t any murders at a school, Sherlock!” John was pissed. He had been wasting time, only to find out he was supposed to be investigating a school. That seemed ridiculous.

“Think again,” Sherlock strode away from him and walked to the front of the school, leaving John dumbfounded. John ran up to Sherlock. Sherlock locked eyes with at him seriously.

“John, I am going to ask this of you merely for professional purposes and for the investigation. I promise you, there are no ulterior motives when I ask this of you,” Sherlock started to say. What was Sherlock blabbering on about?

“What is it?”

Sherlock inhaled deeply. “I need you…to pretend to be my…boyfriend,” he said with a red face. John frowned.

“Are you kidding me Sherlock? Because if this is some kind of joke it isn’t very funny!” John shouted. He didn’t want to be made of as some kind of fool. He knew things were weird from the very beginning about this. He circled around, surveying the area in search of any indications this was all a giant joke. To his surprise, everything seemed usual.

“No. Keep it down,” Sherlock scolded him. John sighed and looked up at Sherlock irritated but complied. Sherlock continued. “If I tell you now I have a feeling you will overdo things…just go along, and it will make sense in the end,” Sherlock said. 

John really didn’t want to be Sherlock’s boyfriend, for real or for pretend. But he knew to trust Sherlock. He knew Sherlock didn’t have any interest in him, and he needed to do this for the case, even if the reason was not clarified.

“Fine. But you tell this to no one,” John warned, raising his finger indignantly in his foe's face. Sherlock nodded.

“Now that we have that out of the way,” Sherlock lightly took John’s hand, holding it and ringing the button for the school. John blushed at the sudden gesture and waited patiently to be let into the school. The door unlocked, and Sherlock opened the it for the two of them. John looked around seeing numerous religious statues, feeling out of place and self conscious of holding Sherlock’s hand.

“Sherlock…is this a catholic school?” he asked. He knew he was going to be judged if he was caught holding hands with another man at a catholic school!

“Yes, why?” Sherlock said looking around the school while taking metal notes. John's brows could not be lower on his face.

“Don’t you think we will be frowned upon from faculty for being...boyfriends,” he put quotes on the word ‘boyfriends’. Sherlock shook his head.

“I already told them about us. They aren’t going to refuse the best detective just because his partner is his boyfriend,” Sherlock said almost as if it was obvious. John decided to just take Sherlock’s word for it and peered around. A giant Mary statue was in the middle of the hallway and portraits of saints were hung up on the walls. John felt he was committing a sin but then remembered he wasn’t really Sherlock’s boyfriend. He was “undercover” one could say.

A skinny old woman walked down the hallway wearing a long dark blue dress. She smiled at the couple and opened her arms.

“Sherlock,” she said in a friendly voice while hugging him. “I’m glad to have you back, although we seem to be in an unfortunate situation," she said grimly. John wondered who the lady was and why she seemed to be so familiar with Sherlock. Sherlock smiled at her.

“Yes, the situation is quite unfortunate,” he focused on John. “Eliza, this is my partner John; John, this is an old friend of mine” Sherlock introduced. John grinned warmly and shook her hand.

“Oh, he's a handsome fellow! You got lucky with this one, Sherlock,” Eliza beamed with a not-so-subtle wink. John's face turned red, pondering what she meant by ‘this one’, as if to imply there have been others. Eliza began to show them around the school, letting Sherlock take in any information needed.

\---

“Well that’s the school. Feel free to look around all you’d like,” Eliza said, concluding her tour. They all said their goodbyes, and Eliza walked away.

“Let’s go back to the theatre room,” Sherlock suggested. John was about to ask what for when Sherlock jerked him to their destination anyway. John tightened his grip in Sherlock’s cold hand. Sherlock opened the door to the room, interrupting the class. The teacher looked confused.

“May I help you?” the man asked them. John looked up at Sherlock.

“We are here for the investigation. I thought we would just observe your class. You wouldn’t mind that, I assume.” Sherlock said. The man shook his head, still slightly questioning. Sherlock resumed and sat in the back row, having John unwillingly follow.

“Today’s topic is love…loss. We are going to improvise today, with these concepts,” the man said. He found Sherlock and John in the crows with a sudden idea in mind. John began to squirm in his seat at the eye contact. “You two are a couple yes?” he asked them.

“That is correct,” Sherlock confirmed.

“Then, you two must have had your downs in your relationship. I can tell by the way you look at each other that you’ve been through quite a lot. Would you please come up to the class and perform the first scene?” the teacher requested.

“I think you should leave that up to the children,” Sherlock said before being cut off.

“This would be a learning experience for them! I have always wanted a same sex relationship, and I believe you two could show the class how easy it is to perform it, ” Sherlock couldn’t argue with that. Well, he could've, but he was too shocked at the ask that nothing came in his bloody mind. He stood up and walked to the stage. John almost protested but instead followed. They stood up there awkwardly, looking at everyone in the class.

“Okay wonderful! What are your names?” he asked.

“My name is Sherlock,”

“John,”

“Okay. Now Sherlock and John, you two are in pain. John you have…you have been away for three years and have come back…Sherlock is hurting from your disappearance…and you two are just meeting again for the first time in those three years…Sherlock I want you to start off with the line “Why are you here?” and then you two will continue the story as you go along,” the teacher said. They both began to look at each other, glassy eyed.

“Why are…why are you here?” Sherlock asked, choking on the sentence. John shrugged.

“I want to be here,” he simply stated.

“Yes…but why? You left me three years ago and suddenly you want to just barge back into my life,” Sherlock said accusingly.

“I’m pretty sure that’s my line!” John started to get into the skit, more so than he thought he would. He sighed and took a deep breath.  
“I’m sorry…let me…I miss you,” John said.

“You miss me or you miss her? Did she leave you already?” Sherlock asked. John noticed they were five feet apart. He took a small step towards Sherlock.

“No. No I’m not here because of her. I’m here for you,”

“But she did leave you…Violet,” Sherlock said, making up a random name.

“Yes…she left me,” John said in defeat. The kids seemed to be intrigued by the intensity.

“And now you’re here…begging for me? You left me you know. You left and got married, and didn’t keep in contact with me for three years!” Sherlock said building up anger and suspense.

“Well I couldn’t just stay here! I couldn’t just stay with you my whole life! What would that fulfill? When I stayed here with you I was going through woman after woman…I needed to settle down…have a family…have someone I could wake up to every morning. You never gave me that,” John said beginning to tear up.

‘Then I ask again, why are you back? If I caused you that much misery why are you back here?! Is it so you at least have some company of some sort, until you run off and leave me again for something better? Is that it?! Or are you genuinely missing me and plan to stay here? Because it sounds like you plan to stay here temporarily,” Sherlock said giving John not an expression of anger or sadness, but an expression of pain.

The room was completely silent by this point. Everyone was paying attention. Every word was being soaked in. John stayed quiet. Sherlock spoke again.

“You left me. You thought you could just leave me without a care in the world but you never once gave into consideration how I felt! It hurt me you know. I thought you had saved me. But then…you left me the way you found me, broken, alone, lifeless, lost. And now here you are, not trying to save me but here for your own selfish reasons…you want me to mend your wounds, but you have no intention of mending mine,” Sherlock said, having a tear slide down his cheek. You could hear the internal gasp everyone had inside.

“I-I…I’m sorry…I want to stay with you forever I do…but I have needs…desires,” John began to say.

“Let me-,“ Sherlock took a step closer to him. “Let me fulfill those needs. If you need someone to hold you I will hold you. If you need someone to love then love me. If you need someone to kiss…kiss me,” Sherlock said. John looked up at him, almost fully convinced it wasn’t an act. This was how Sherlock really felt. But then he remembered this was Sherlock. Sherlock never had feelings for anyone before…he thought.

“Kiss me,” Sherlock demanded, sucking John out of his thoughts and back into reality. John gulped and leaned in close, a slave of his own emotions. On any other day, he'd slap Sherlock in the face. But in this moment, his heart was slamming, his breath was stagnant, and his lips were quivering. Sherlock bent down. Just as their lips were about to press, they were interrupted.

“Scene! That was brilliant Sherlock! It was almost as if this was real,” the teacher smiled.

“Yeah, but he’s just a faggot!” a boy yelled out making some of his friends laugh. Sherlock’s brows furrowed and he leapt offstage and closer to the boy.

“Would you like to say that again?” he asked in a warning tone. John was still in shock. He was having an internal struggle. He thought he never liked Sherlock like that. They had never spoken to each other that way. He couldn't help but think of how they were close to kissing, and he didn't mind it. He tried to deny the feelings, but they came back stronger. ‘Oh Sherlock, what have you done?’ John thought. John slowly walked offstage, ignoring the argument between the student and Sherlock.

“Come on John, I think we should see the actual crime scene now,” he said angrily while grabbing John’s hand. John was confused as to why they didn’t see the crime scene first, but he didn’t want to question Sherlock, especially while he was still pissy.

They walked down the narrow hallway, until Sherlock opened the door to a room filled with printers.

“If there’s an investigation going on why didn’t they just close the school?” John asked.

“Eliza doesn’t want this getting into the press. It would look bad on the school. So only the teachers know about it,” Sherlock answered him. John nodded his head and took around.

“Careful John, don’t step on the man!” Sherlock scolded him. John stopped his foot in the air and looked down to see a man with a cross in his chest. He backed away.

“Vampire?” John asked. Sherlock scoffed at him.

“No. Obviously, it’s a hate crime," Sherlock stated. John cocked his head.

“A hate crime? I-I’m sorry am I missing something here?” he asked. Sherlock rolled his eyes.

“The man is wearing a rainbow bow tie. Obviously, he’s gay. The cross is to kill him, thinking he is evil since he is gay. Crosses are used to kill demonic things, used for mythological creatures such as vampires, and also to keep demons away. The angle the cross is facing is tilted downwards, meaning the person who stabbed him is smaller than him, meaning the hate crime was committed by a student,” Sherlock blurted. John stood there quite surprised.

“Do you know who the killer is?” John asked.

“I have my suspicions. But I have a plan on how to catch them anyway,” Sherlock said.

“Oh? And what’s that?” John asked.

Sherlock told John his plan. It was risky, but Sherlock Holmes is a risky person.

During the school’s lunch, John lurked around looking at all of the students. He then walked out of the cafeteria and into the printing room, where they had removed the body. He began to pretend to print out papers.

“Stop right there unless you want your hand blown off,” Sherlock said, coming out from his hiding spot and pointing his gun out. John turned around to see the culprit had scissors in his hand ready to stab him. The kid froze. He was small and seemed to be at least thirteen. “John, come here” Sherlock commanded. Without a second thought, John rushed over to Sherlock for safety.

“Yes…so it was you,” Sherlock said to the boy. John recognized the bloke. He was the quiet one in the classroom, didn’t say anything at all. But John never suspected him.

“W-what do you mean?” the kid asked him.

“You killed your teacher,” Sherlock said.

“N-no I didn’t. What teacher?” he started to sway a little and looked to the right. Sherlock still had his gun aimed at him.

“Oh don’t play dumb with me. You killed your teacher. You were struggling internally, because you are gay. You wanted to kill your teacher hoping that God would forgive you for being gay. You were hoping God could take away your homosexuality. And if someone were to suspect you of killing your teacher you could say you are gay, knowing they wouldn’t suspect a gay person of committing a homophobic crime. No, you knew the police would suspect a more openly homophobic student. But I am not the police. And I can see right through your act,” Sherlock said. The boy started to cry, hard.

“It’s not my fault I’m gay! You have no idea how hard it is. When everyone is telling you you’re going to hell for something you can’t control! You would never understand!” he cried out. "You didn't need to kill a man. God loves you, regardless of what others say," John said to him matter-of-factually. The police came inside the room and took the kid away.

John sighed. He shyly held Sherlock’s hand.

“I know now...why you had us pretend we are a couple. It was to catch that kid,” he said.

“Yes…I already planned everything before I came to the school. In all honesty, the case was easy for me. I just thought about helping the LGBT out a bit,” Sherlock said, seeming unfazed by John’s hand. John looked down and took his hand away.

“Right…so I guess this is over too,” he said pointing to the two of them. Sherlock frowned.

“I thought you’d be relieved. You can be your happy straight self again,” Sherlock said. John shook his head.

“C-can we talk about this at home?” he requested. Sherlock noticed John was becoming very serious and decided it was better to continue the conversation there.

They walked inside their flat. Sherlock started to take his coat off.

“So what was it you wanted to discuss?” he asked. He set his coat on the hanger and turned around, only to be in close proximity to John's face. He could feel the hot breath of the shorter's against his face. 

"About today," John said softly.

"Yes?" Sherlock didn't know where this was going.

"Did you mean what you said back on the stage, or were you just blowing one over me?" John asked, coating his bottom lip with saliva as he focused on the man with high cheekbones.

"What do you think?" Sherlock responded.

"I've had too many thoughts about it to know which is right," John said quietly.

"Thoughts?" Sherlock questioned.

"Things like, 'He could be a really good actor like having me punch him in the face, while he pretends to need help,' or 'This is how he feels and has been too scared to say it,' That sort," John rambled.

"Those are polarizing ideas," Sherlock said.

"Hence, my predicament," John didn't know when to pull away from Sherlock's face. He was so desperate to latch his lips onto the other pair.

"I see," Sherlock said.

"Oh, just kiss me already," John huffed.

Sherlock smirked and leaned down agonizingly slow. His lips hovered over John's, teasing him before pressing them together. Sherlock's lips were soft and heated the trembling pair that had been ignored for so long. John's eyes fluttered shut, pressing him against the wall with his left hand and moving their lips together in sync. Sherlock linked an arm around the male's waist, inviting the closeness. This was the moment between them that never felt more right. All of John's doubt had left his mind and positive thoughts replaced whatever worry that lived. Gently, Sherlock parted and stared at John.

"So...I'm bisexual," John mumbled.

“I know.” he simply said. John pushed him away angrily.

“God, do you have to be right about everything Sherlock? For once, could you just not think about showing off and be concerned with how I feel!” he shouted. He knew he shouldn’t be upset. But Sherlock was the first person John felt comfortable coming out to,and Sherlock was being his usual obnoxious self.

Sherlock took John’s hand lightly and stroked it with his thumb gently. “I’m sorry…that was insensitive of me…I’m glad that you came out to me,” he softly to him. John looked away, embarrassed and hurt. He felt so much like a girl. Sherlock leaned down and gently kissed the top of his head.

"Don't worry. I won't mention it to anyone. For now, we should focus on figuring out whatever 'this' is," Sherlock said calmly.

“Thank you,” was all John managed to say.

And that is the story of how John Watson and Sherlock Holmes stayed together in love for the rest of their lives.


End file.
